DAY 4
I then met up with what I thought was
my group but it was just me and a family of four from Canada. I was confused. I
thought everyone was staying at our hotel. Weird. We then went to two other
hotels to pick up some more people. After speaking with a few of these people I
am pretty sure they are just on diff tours with my company and are not the
group I will be traveling with (except the fam, who were suuuuper nice btw. And
they thought I was like 23 years old which made me like them even more.
Booyah.)
Our tour guide in the morning was a
lovely woman named Ingrid. She sounded like Mrs. Doubtfire which was
incredible. I loved hearing her talk and she was full of information and had a
great sense of humor. After seeing so much of London the past three days on my
own it was so excellent to receive all the additional information and history
on certain sites that I didn't know about. Also she was full of fun
factoids not found in the guide books. I really learned a lot about about all
the places I had explored since I've been in London. It gave it all more
meaning although was a bit too sloooow for me. This made me so glad I had come
early and done a lot of the sites by myself at my pace (i.e. a very fast pace).
After the tour, I bought myself a one
day unlimited Tube pass because I wanted to go to a few neighborhoods very
spaced out and just don't want to waste the time walking to all of them because
it would literally take hours and I'd pass everything I'd seen already and
didn't need to see again. Also, Mrs. Doubtfire informed us that buying a
one day unlimited Tube pass saves you money if you plan to use it more than
twice; which I was. I planned my route out beforehand (duh) and once again,
went on my merry little way.
This train system is actually pretty easy to
understand, but I just got confused once with which direction train I needed
when there were no signs. I didn't want to end up on the wrong side of the
platform. But I did so well. So well! Good signage was the key. I was legit
proud of myself. I only wish the train cars had A/C. It was brutally hot
in them. There were a few other things I noticed about The Tube/Underground:
- The stops on the
are much further apart than the 9 block apart stops on most NYC trains. Maybe
that's why it costs much more money.
- The rides are
expensive. My one day pass cost like $12 US. I ended up using it 3 times so
essentially got one ride for free, so that was good.
- People actually
stay to the right on escalators and let those that want to walk up on the left,
do so, without a problem. It was a pleasure.
- The system here
is like the Metro in DC in the sense you have to swipe in when you enter and
then again when you exit. I forgot each time and had to fumble for my pass. But
don't worry, I wasn't the asshole doing it at the turnstiles, I pulled over.
Today I had two locations in mind to
get to, and explore, since I had covered so much ground in the last few days
already.
1) Oxford
Street. I wanted to check out some more of the shopping scene. I had no
intention of buying anything for the sake of space in my suitcase so early
on in the trip. And we have almost all these stores in NYC so I can wait.
Shopping on Oxford could be best described as shopping on Broadway south
of Houston street in NYC. Lots of chain stores (yes I did go in Forever 21. No
I did not go in any of the four H&M's. But also yes I checked out
TopShop since it is British.) I also went in Selfridges which, like Harrods had
a lot of high end stuff. I once again went to trusty ole Pret A Manger for a
quick sandwich for lunch and then to Starbucks (they are everywhere) for an
iced tea. It was hot out there today and that really hit the spot.
2) Notting
Hill. Here I had two goals in mind. To see the blue-door house in the Hugh
Grant and Julia Roberts movie Notting
Hill and to check out Portobello Market. I had not heard of the market before
but my mom had it on her itinerary and since I had extra time, I headed down
there. (But not before losing my direction and walking in circles not once, but
twice. Geez. When will I learn?) The market was cool for about five blocks but
then everything started to look the same and it got waaaay too crowded. I
walked a bit longer down the way and then pulled over to get some free wifi. I
was on the phone with my brother when it happened... I had a celeb sighting in
London!!! Yeah! An NBA player. (Even better.) Yup, when I see a tall
handsome black man, of course my radar goes on overdrive. But this guy actually
looked familiar. And he was. It was Richard Jefferson, who played at Arizona
for college and most recently was on the New Jersey Nets and Golden State
Warriors. Because I have volume control problems and was on the phone, he
totally heard me say his name to my brother and turned around. So of course I then waved, told
him I was from New York, freaked out, and then calmed down enough to go up to
him, say hi, and get a pic. And that's the story how I met my future husband in
London. I kid, I kid. But I wish!! His girlfriend was nice enough to take
our picture and I was giddy the rest of the day. No one else recognized him on
the VERY crowded streets and I applaud myself on recognizing NBA players from
across the pond.
It doesn't seem like I did a lot today compared to
the last two days but I covered a lot of ground again. I came back to the hotel
to meet my tour director and got some intel on the group I will finally meet
tomorrow. Interesting (and shockingly)
enough, I am the only American in my group out of 20 people. There is
apparently one Canadian (I guess the fam I met earlier is not in my group) and
the rest are Aussies. Oh, and I am the youngest person. That I pretty much
expected though. When I picked nicer accommodations over potential closer age
range (when I picked Insight over Contiki), I knew what at was getting into. I
guess I'll know more tomorrow. I know I said that yesterday, but today I really
mean it!
Well, tonight was my last night in
London for now. I have to be up at 4:15 am tomorrow to get ready and
head out to Amsterdam. Since I have to be up so early, I laid low again
tonight. Grabbed dinner and brought it back to my room to relax. I have not
really done much at night here mostly because I'm exhausted from all my
day-exploring, but also because I really don't feel like going to a bar or club alone.
Do I want to party a little? Yes. But I also know its not the safest thing to
do alone and I don't need to be hungover and/or dehydrated in the morning or
need the extra calories. It's all good. though, I do however, want to see Big
Ben at night. Since it gets dark so late here (like 10), I am going to try and go
my last night here in 3 weeks. Anyway, that's it for London...for now. Onto
country #2. Hoping to continue to be lucky connecting to wifi but one
never knows. I will keep writing but may just have to post at a later date back
to back...to back. Stay tuned! Holla.
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